Best in class account management
This week I’ve had the privilege of talking to two different audiences about the same topic.
On Wednesday this week, I was invited to speak at the Agencyomics event, which was phenomenal. It was a group of about a hundred creative agency leaders, all learning new things about how to grow their business.
I was talking about best-in-class account management and how your account management team are really the ones on the front line, talking to your clients on a day-to-day basis.
They’re the ones that can spot opportunities to add more value to their accounts, to find out what the client’s challenges are, pains are, what are they struggling with, and how can they help by adding more value.
The Effect of a Demoralised Account Manager
Yesterday I was talking to a group of account managers in creative agencies. I was invited by Peter Llewellyn from NetworkPharma, so it was a lot of healthcare agencies.
One of the account managers was brave enough to let me know why she hadn’t been growing business and losing clients in her previous role. She admitted that, quite frankly, she didn’t want to grow her business, and she had spotted opportunities to add more value to her accounts, but she felt so demoralized that she didn’t want to do it.
This is actually a common theme that I see, people confide in me as an account manager. You might be overwhelmed with work. You might not be feeling appreciated. You might be demoralized, demotivated, thinking about leaving the agency. So when someone comes along and talks to you about account growth, you’re very, very resistant.
What can agency leaders do differently?
I’d love to know from other account managers out there, account leaders out there, what can agency leaders do to change this situation?
Because obviously for an account leader, it’s one of the number one things to retain and grow existing business, because it’s cheaper, it’s easier, it’s a lot more lucrative than going after new business.
So what can we, as a group, do to help change the situation and be the best account handler? I’d love your thoughts on this.
